Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Trading 3.1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock price rose 3.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $535.00 to $590.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $510.86 and last traded at $509.54. Approximately 5,337,613 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 16,917,754 shares. The stock had previously closed at $494.17.

META has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $425.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $370.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $465.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other Meta Platforms news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total transaction of $45,601,669.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 10,956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.28, for a total value of $5,185,255.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,157,645.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 97,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.67, for a total value of $45,601,669.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,421,182 shares of company stock valued at $677,574,550. 13.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in META. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,223,148,000. Morgan Stanley purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,072,543,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,796,633,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,731,491,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 130,809,908 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $39,270,443,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,647 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $494.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $397.43. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 28.98% and a return on equity of 29.48%. The company had revenue of $40.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.00 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.42%.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.